Neurofeedback Informed Meditation Techniques (NIMT) for modulating somatosensory alpha activity and acute pain perception: A novel paradigm for treatment development

My project is testing out a novel experimental approach with applications for research which seeks to elucidate relationships between neurophysiological and experiential processes, and identifying and developing mental training techniques for modulating targeted neurophysiological signals. This approach will involve working with expert meditators as research collaborators and using real-time recordings of brain activity (i.e., neurofeedback) to identify and describe the mental processes that modulate the neurophysiological signal that we are targeting. We believe that this signal is dysregulated in specific chronic diseases and the results of our study may directly inform existing clinical programs. If successful, the approach that we are testing may offer a strategy for identifying how specific meditation techniques may best be used for treating specific diseases. Furthermore, as an experimental approach for the concurrent production and analysis of first-person experiential reports and neuroimaging data our study seeks to validate a potentially important strategy for a science of consciousness, and in particular, the research program of neurophenomenology.